CONFERENCE COVERAGE SERIES
Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting 2003
New Orleans, LA, U.S.A.
04 – 09 November 2003
New Orleans: Immunotherapy—The Game Is Still in Town
At the 33rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience held last week in New Orleans, at least two dozen presentations dealt with current efforts to develop a vaccine for Alzheimer’s disease. This bold approach suffered a setback last year when...
New Orleans: New Approaches to Lift Microglia Mysteries
The role of inflammation in Alzheimer’s disease—beyond serious dispute, yet still enigmatic—gained much attention at the 33rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, held last week in New Orleans. While immunotherapy labs are retooling their approaches ...
New Orleans: Symposium Probes Why Synapses Are Suffering
Are you sometimes tempted to view APP and presenilin merely as raw material and machine for Aβ production, respectively? If so, think again, because that narrow spotlight is opening up to a broader understanding of how these two proteins function and might contribute to Alzheimer’s...
New Orleans: Out Go Classic γ-Secretase Inhibitors, In Come More Dexterous NSAIDs?
Eric Parker from the Schering-Plough Research Institute in Kenilworth, New Jersey, reported at the Society for Neuroscience meeting in New Orleans what many may have heard already: At least some γ-secretase inhibitors cause mechanism-based side effects so severe as to disqualify them from clinical testing...
New Orleans: Plant Chemical a Protein Aggregation Buster?
At the 33rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, Anthony Fink and M. Zhu of the University of California, Santa Cruz, reported that baicalein, a flavanoid used in traditional Chinese medicine, binds tightly to α-synuclein and even disaggregates...
New Orleans: Kelly Dineley Reports from Satellite Social
At the Society for Neuroscience meeting in New Orleans, approximately 100 scientists gathered to discuss what roles the interaction between Aβ and the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) play in normal cognitive function and Alzheimer's disease...
New Orleans: Aβ Oligomers and Memory: Now They Are Good…
As evidence mounts against oligomers as culprits of Aβ neurotoxicity, their only defense hinges on the possibility that they may have some normal physiological function—even a slightly neurotrophic effect—on cognition which has yet to be characterized...
New Orleans: Aβ Oligomers and Memory: …Now They Are Bad
Notwithstanding some redeeming features, soluble Aβ oligomers have an overwhelmingly bad reputation as suspected mediators of synaptic dysfunction in Alzheimer’s. A number of accusing fingers...
New Orleans: Michael O'Neill Reports on Nicotinic Receptors in Parkinson's
A satellite meeting to the 33rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience addressed nicotine and nicotinic receptors, and their potential for Parkinson's disease therapy...
New Orleans: Jason Shepherd Reports on New Mouse Models
Two new approaches for modeling neurodegeneration in mice were unveiled at the 33rd Annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in New Orleans...
New Orleans: Probing Alzheimer’s Gene Background
At the 33rd Annual Meeting of the Society of Neuroscience held last month in New Orleans, <strong>Bruce Lamb</strong> described the latest analysis of his strains of congenic mice that differ by background only—a novel approach to study AD genetics...
Can’t Close Spigot? Try Opening Drain: New Tack on Amyloid Degradation
Scientists prospecting the amyloid hypothesis for new treatment strategies have set their sights on the idea of boosting the enzymatic destruction of the Aβ peptide...
New Orleans: Rudy Tanzi on What’s Brewing in AD Genetics
This report summarizes some of the genetic findings for late-onset Alzheimer's disease presented last November at the 33rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in New Orleans...